(c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

Even if the language is not well chosen, Hunter remembers minute details from Disney movies that he watched more than 2 years ago.   We played the “Think Fast” Wii game which is mostly Disney trivia with some facts about animals and geography and this kid beat me to the buzzer nearly every time.  When he wasn’t sure of the answer he quickly deduced the right guess.  It was amazing to watch him (and try to beat him –heh).

Chandler has not seen many Disney movies because Hunter outgrew them, and we no longer have a VCR hooked up to the television, and most of our Disney movies are on VHS.  Also, I became disenchanted with Disney after we started reading good quality “living” books.  I know we could criticize Disney for some of their thematic elements, but I could also criticize Grimm’s for the unnecessary violence and cruelty in the stories, which is worse than Disney’s version — like putting someone in a barrel full of nails and rolling them down the hill as a punishment.

My point is that I’m astounded at how much Hunter remembers from something told in story form, not just a visual movie but from the books we read and the stories I tell them (I just don’t “test” like the Wii game tested him, but I hear it through spontaneous narration).  Contrast this amazing memory with his abilities in rote memorization and you’d think we weren’t even talking about the same kid.  He regularly skips Thursday and Friday when naming the days of the week, he will draw a blank on his birth date and he does not care about the months of the year and doesn’t want to learn them.

I know why the kids don’t care about the calendar.  It is because our lives are not tied to the calendar and their Dad has an unusual work schedule. Kelly works four days on and four days off, so our “Monday” advances by one day every week.  Half the time I don’t know what day it is, and I have to look at the computer to know.  The only regular commitment we have is Cub Scouts on Tuesday nights.

If the kids are excited about an upcoming play date or other planned activity and they will ask me how many day until we go.  I am trying to remember to say, “today is Tuesday and we go on Friday, so how many days is that?”  Instead of just giving them the answer, because I realize that for them to learn something it has to matter to them.

Making up this game matters to Hunter and it involves reading — yay!

I know these boys are not going to grow up and leave home without knowing the days of the week and the months of the year. I just find it interesting that it is harder to teach from home.  Is this a reason to go to school and learn it at the same time as all the other kids?  No.  Is this something I need to take the time to teach them now?  Yes.

I will think of a story to tell them about the days of the week and the months of the year.  A story with something important that gets forgotten because the character didn’t know the days and months.  It might help them realize that days and months do matter, even when we have the bohemian freedom of homeschooling.

Chapter 10 The Curriculum 1 — Vol 6 Page 154

We, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum, taking care only that all knowledge offered to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that:––

“Education is the Science of Relations’; that is, a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––

          ”Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things.”

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:––

(a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.

(b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity).

(c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

[All particulars may be had from The Director, Parents' Union School, Ambleside. The illustrations in the way of children's answers for the various sections of this chapter have been omitted for want of space, except in the case of a few answers under Composition.]

vol 6 pg 155

As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should “tell back” after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.

A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising, and the like.

Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment.

Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in elementary schools respond freely to this method, which is based on the behaviour of mind.

The river by our house is at flood stage.

We are not walking much in our neighborhood, despite my determination a few weeks ago.  It’s just not the best place to be lately, but I’ve accepted it.  We do not plan to move.  I’m pretty sure we can outlive and outlast.

Our boys are doing well.  They are both learning to read at the same time.  They are encouraging each other. It’s like watching young horses run together.  It’s amazing to watch.  Hearing our boys take turns reading Dr. Seuss books last night was music to my ears.

Hunter is working through the books on Explode the Code on-line. He is on book 2 and needs the extra practice.  He is getting spelling and phonics with this as well. He prefers the computer, clicking and typing, to the handwriting in the ETC workbooks.  He likes computer instruction instead of my help learning to read.  It’s been nice to be able to take me out of it.

Chandler is on lesson 32 in Headsprout.   Chandler is learning to read by sight and memory.  He sees a word a couple of times and he knows it.  I’m encouraging him to do Headsprout because I want him to have phonics instruction, but he seems bored with it.  When he gets to chapter book level, he needs to know how to sound out bigger words, so I’m trying encourage that.  I might try Ordinary Parents Guide with Chandler since  he likes human teachers better than computer instruction.

Overall, I’m really relaxed about the boys learning to read and write. It’s really nice to say that!  The boys are also doing copywork and I use this website to print their worksheets. They tell me what they want to write and they like to be silly.  I have them underline the nouns and put a dot under the verbs.  They are learning these parts of speech because of our nightly noun stories.  The boys pick a person(s), place(s) and thing(s), an action verb and abstract noun and I tell a story using everything they picked.  They are simple stories to tell and they like hearing all their choices.  They will remind me if I forget one of their choices!  I will continue to add parts of speech like adjectives and adverbs soon.

Yesterday we played a fun Treasure Hunt game.  Hunter wrote words, and if Chandler could read the word he got to open the picture clue that he drew himself.  Then we played again and I wrote phrase clues like “under the desk” and “between the floor cushions.” I tried to think of as many words that I could to describe the location:  above, below, between, under, around, etc.

Today I want to play a reading/charades game.  I will write on pieces of paper things like “jump up and down,” “stand on one foot,” and “turn around in a circle.”  Then I will know they are reading and understanding.  I’m so happy to be able to play these kinds of games now!

Math is going well too.  Hunter is adding and subtracting in columns and learning to carry and borrow.  I can tell he doesn’t really understand why he is doing it, he is just doing it how I showed him.  I need to think of a way to show him with manipulatives.  We will start multiplication soon.  Chandler is ahead in math too.  Chandler finished kindergarten last month.  He is doing first grade work now.

I hope to restart our State quilt project in February.  It was a nice break for us!

A friend recommended her pizza dough recipe and it looks yummy but I haven’t tried it because another friend suggested this book.  This is my style of cooking — innovative short cuts, make-ahead, super easy, and super yummy.  I like the dough flavor on Day 1 and  I especially like the flavor around Day 3 or 4.  By Day 6 or 7 the dough is too strong for my taste, but it doesn’t matter because we use up a triple batch in less the a week!  We have two hungry boys and now we have inexpensive bread to help fill them up.

I made their recipe even easier by tripling it, using a five pound bag of King Arthur Flour (all-purpose, unbleached white) and not bothering to measure from the bag. I add in two additional cups of flour using the scoop and sweep method. I have played with adding as little as an extra 3/4 cup and as much as 3 and 1/2 cups of flour.  I like the extra 2 cups the best. However, there are more air holes with only the extra 3/4 cup.

I use a Pampered Chef measuring and mixing bowl for the 9 and a half cups of warm water. I fill it to the top edge of the words at the top of the outside of the measuring bowl, so I am not counting cups of water either.  For the coarse salt and yeast, I fill our quarter measuring cup to heaping which is 4 and 1/2 tablespoons.  Easy peasy.

I do pour the yeast into the warm water and dissolve a little. I also mix the coarse salt into the flour before adding the liquid.  Then you just mix until moistened (no kneading required) and let it rise for 2 hours.  Then divide into covered, but not sealed, containers and put it into the fridge.  Use as needed!

Look at all we have made with this basic dough recipe.

Making pizzas ahead and freezing them uncooked works well too.  You do not need to let it defrost before baking, but I have partially defrosted it.  Use a piece of aluminum foil if the cheese is browning faster than the pizza crust.  The directions for all of this is in the book.

I recommend buying the book because there are other refrigerator dough “base” recipes and recipes for what to do with them, including recipes using healthier, whole grains.

Open Your Mouth!

The big bird said to the little bird,

“Open your mouth and close your eyes.  I’m going to give you a big surprise.”

“A bug!”

The Cat said to the kitten,

“Open your mouth and close your eyes, I’m going to give you a big surprise.”

“A dead mouse!”

The dog said to the puppy,

“Open your mouth and close your eyes, I’m going to give you a big surprise!”

“An old bone!”

_________

He wanted to keep going, so I read the following paragraph to him (he wasn’t looking) and he answered all the questions.  He wanted to try reading it, so I told him the names again.  He hesitated on “everyone,” “talked” and “night.”  After this, he’d had enough.

Debbie and Stephen

Debbie and Stephen went to a concert. Everyone sat down.  Then the music began. Everyone listened.  No one talked. Debbie and Stephen enjoyed the music.  Later they talked about how nice the music was that night.

________

Hunter is making big leaps in his reading ability!  He is not frustrated with this level.  When we come back after the break, I want to work on word families and sight words since he stumbled on “night” and “everyone.”  We will also do Explode the Code online this year too, but maybe not at the same time. Hunter does best when we mix it up and take breaks.  His biggest leaps happen after a break.

I hope to focus on winter nature, and hopefully some beach combing.  We might stay at the coast for a week or more.  If we have wifi, I’ll continue to post.

Happy New Year!

More Book Ideas from Homeschool Share Master Geography List:

Hunter finished Headsprout in September but retention from the last half of the program is not very high.  I would recommend lessons 1 through 40 to jumpstart reading, but not the second set of lessons unless your child really loves the program.  Chandler is on lesson 31.  Chandler is reading real books and catching on quickly.

Last year we also did a lot of work with the Dolch sight words and Hunter remembers most of those, and he remembers the most repetitive words in Headsprout, mostly from lessons 1 through 40.  This tells me he needs more repetition.  So we’ll work on the 2nd and 3rd grade sight words in 2012.

Hunter also does very well with this Paint Chip Word Family Game.

Hunter and Chandler can read this book set without frustration. I’m celebrating their progress!  Scholastic First Little Readers are available in a set on ebay.  They have picture clues and plenty of repetition.  These books are building confidence in both boys.

Hunter gets plenty of practice with spelling by typing in key words into Google or YouTube.  He loves Lego stop-motion videos.  He just started making his own too, and can navigate the software like a pro.

Screen shot of Teach Me Kindergarten

Both boys like doing “school work” on the iPod.  Chandler recently finished Teach Me Kindergarten, and Hunter did Teach Me First Grade as a review.  Chandler is done with kindergarten and close on his brother’s heels.

This fall we worked in the Explode the Code workbooks which Chandler loves, but Hunter complained often about the required writing.  Sometimes I would do the writing for him, since he can write legibly, and because the goal is reading, not writing.  I do believe other things like spelling and writing WILL come later.  Once the boys see more patterns in words, then spelling will be easier.

A good change for Hunter was to start using Explode the Code Online. Now he is flying through the lessons without complaint!  He completed Book 1 in about two weeks.  He needed the extra practice with short vowel sounds like short E and short I.  I really like the computer program since it is covering all the skills for reading and spelling, and it will repeat lessons when needed.

What I don’t like is some of the new picture clues are hard to decipher, even for me.  So when it asks you to click on the picture that starts with the short E sound, you have to figure out what the picture IS then click on it.  If you could hover and have it say the word, then there would be fewer mistakes.  One of the pictures for a short E word was a drawing of a man crawling out of a window with bars on it, like an old style jail.  The word was “escape” and even I didn’t get it at first.  So that “assessment” then places you in the correct lessons, but some of the misses were from not knowing the name of the picture.

Like I said, Hunter needed the extra practice with easy vowel sounds, but another child might be really frustrated to have to do those easier lessons.  The parent or teacher can set the lessons to any level, but I also feel some skills might be missed this way.  Their program needs some updates.

Also, the program times the child on how long it takes to do a lesson and then gives a paper airplane, butterfly, or ladybug according to how long it took but not necessarily the number of misses.  The bees are for too many misses.  So if a child is goofing around or fidgeting, or talking to someone else, their “scores” will be lower.  It is important to pause the program when the child takes breaks.  We did not have this issue in Headsprout.

These are my only two complaints about the program.  Otherwise, Hunter is flying through 10 lessons a day.  To give him incentive to do his best I told him that he needs to get 10 butterflies or paper airplanes per day.  If he gets ladybugs or bees, he needs to do more lessons. Now he pays more attention.

I often think about life skills for our children.   They each have very different interests.  One boy likes books, the other likes audio books.  One likes to build, the other likes to play school.  My job is to give them wings.

With all that is happening in our lives, “courage” will be our motto for 2012.

Week of December 12th
N is for Nutmeg: A Connecticut Alphabet
Statehood: January 9, 1788
Tree: White Oak quercus alba
Flower: Mountain Laurel kalmia latfolia
Bird: Robin
Warm as Wool FIAR Vol. 3
Owl Moon FIAR Vol. 2
Night of the Moonjellies FIAR Vol.1
From Plant to Blue Jeans
Bugs and Bugsicles: Insects in Winter
Baby Whale’s Journey
The “Extraordinary” Mark Twain (according to Susy)
The Floating Circus
Noah Webster: Weaver of Words (could not find locally)

Topics: Circus, dinosaurs, submarines, composers, lawyers, landscape architects, peddlers, oysters, praying mantis, Native Americans, sperm whales, Mark Twain, Happiet Beecher Stowe, whaling, Eli Whitney, the cotton gin, dictionaries, Noah Webster

We are studying the states in order of statehood.  Each week we find the state on the map, read and discuss the books, and connect the stories to the area by using maps or Google Earth.  Each day we work in Explode the Code Book 2 and Singapore 2A.

Our family chose this fabric for dinosaurs found in Connecticut.

The rest of this series:  Delaware Week 1, Pennsylvania Week 2, New Jersey Week 3, Georgia Week 4

Topics: Martin Luther King Jr, Coca-Cola,Trail of Tears,Etowah Indians, Dinosaurs, Honey, Bees, Girl Scouts, Invasive plants, Jimmy Carter, George Washington Carver, Botany, Peanuts, swamps, quarries, Cabbage Patch Kids, Stone Mountain, Joel Chandler Harris

We are studying the states in order of statehood.  Each week we find the state on the map, read and discuss the books, and connect the stories to the area by using maps or Google Earth.  Each day we work in Explode the Code Book 2 and Singapore 2A.

Becoming Six chose this quilt fabric for Georgia peaches.

Here are the fabrics we chose for accent fabrics since most of the state fabrics have these colors.  I like the bright since they all fade with washing.

The rest of this series:  Delaware Week 1, Pennsylvania Week 2, New Jersey Week 3,